Basics of Web Conferencing

Articles on Conferencing | Topics: conferencing, conference

by Thurid Gilbert

Web conferencing is a form of communication that uses the internet to connect two or more participants. Web conferencing utilizes text, audio and even video to share information on a real-time basis. Imagine using your computer to hold meetings with multiple business partners or to conduct brainstorming sessions with your employees. These are just some of the few applications web conferencing can offer you.

Web conferencing has many features that allow the event to be highly interactive despite the wide distances that may separate its users and is quickly changing the way many organizations conduct their business. For example, web conferencing is enabling a greater level of collaboration through presentation sharing, document sharing and desktop sharing. Web conferencing can even allow you to turn control access of your computer over to someone else, a feature that is being utilized more and more especially in training and explaining computer software. With a so-called "whiteboard" participants also have the power to annotate or modify documents or presentations directly and then save a copy without needing the original application. This is especially valuable quickening the process of contract negotiations. Polling features also help you get feedback from your participants and other features allow you the power to have greater control over how your web conference is run.

Used creatively, web conferencing also has a host of uses in the personal realm such as connecting with families and friends in far away locations and it is also opening more work-from-home opportunities for entrepreneurs. For example, web conferences can expand the market of on-line auctioneers; while trainers, teachers and counselors are adopting the technology to reach more clients for their services. Web conferencing is also being used to allow people to practically be in two different places at the same time, such as when they have to attend important occasions such as weddings and graduations but are unable to do so due to geographical barriers.

The basic equipment one needs to hold a web conference is a computer, a web browser, an internet connection and a phone. Voice over IP (VOIP) or two way internet audio can be used instead of a regular landline connection, so that you can have verbal communication over the net without accumulating long distance call costs. The sound quality however may depend on Internet congestion. You will also have to choose a web conferencing software which are available on annual or monthly subscriptions or on a per-minute basis. Vendors also offer packages depending on how many participants you intend to reach through your web conference whether you will be communicating to just one other person or to 100. The larger the session, the more you should be ready to pay for the service.

Quote of the Day

The Cairo conference ... is about a complicated web of education and employment, consumption and poverty, development and health care. It is also about whether governments will follow where women have so clearly led them, toward safe, simple and reliable choices in family planning. While Cairo crackles with conflict, in the homes of the world the orthodoxies have been duly heard, and roundly ignored.

—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)

If you plan to incorporate video into your web conference, you will require a web or digital camera as well a microphone and other software and peripherals to translate analog information to digital information back to sound and images. Web conferencing with video capabilities usually entail larger wider bandwidth but has become a preferred-cost effective conferencing solution for many businesses, big and small. You can choose between multi-point video which produces a Brady Bunch like effect with multiple video windows being displayed and point to point video which displays only two video windows. Multi-point video is best used for sessions of four or so participants when you want to see each individual member of your audience. However, one disadvantage with web based video conferencing is that one may have to sacrifice the quality of video images for speed. In general, if you have the bandwidth, you will want to find a vendor that offers a high Frames Per Second (FPS) rate to ensure smoother video quality. On the whole however, web conferencing offers an affordable alternative to traditional conferences especially when time, distance and other circumstances make it impossible for all the participants to assemble in one physical room.

Because it breaks down geographical barriers and offers an affordable alternative to traditional conferences that can still make use of video and sound, experts forecast web conferencing to be a widespread form of communication in the near future. Armed with the basics of the technology, you will be on your way to maximizing web conferencing whether for your organizational or personal needs.

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Please note: All personal opinions expressed in the "Basics of Web Conferencing" article belong to the contributing author and are not necessarily shared by WebDesignConferencing.com.

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